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Watch out for dodgy business advice

Open mike night, Marks Park, Emmerentia, Johannesburg. Photo: Chesney Bradshaw
Open mic night, Marks Park, Emmerentia, Johannesburg. Photo: Chesney Bradshaw

We were halfway to a music venue when we realised that all the suburbs were impacted by the electricity power failure. But we really wanted to see the show because we had heard good reports and had waited several weeks to attend. When we got there the venue was in darkness except for a few candles.

The organisers had decided to continue with the musical show despite the electricity failure. One of the organisers drove his car up to the back window and shone his car headlights onto a circle in the middle of the large auditorium to light up the performers. This was a showcase of local talent young and old and gave us an opportunity to listen to music that you don’t hear on the radio, at big concerts and in pubs. Continue reading “Watch out for dodgy business advice”

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How far are you willing to venture outside your “circle of competence”?

Business Card Recycling
Business Card Recycling (Photo credit: System One Gang)

You look at the number of businesses that failed in South Africa last year and wonder what the causes were.

There must be many reasons why 4,000 businesses failed in 2013. What did they do wrong? Why didn’t they make it?

I haven’t seen an analysis of those 4,000 businesses and the reasons for their failure. This total or aggregated number is reported under insolvencies. But anyone who’s been in business for a while will know some of the possible reasons. It could be the economy. Slow demand or crashing demand. Management inexperience. Cash flow management. Financial management. Skyrocketing costs. Wrong identification of markets and demand projection. Continue reading “How far are you willing to venture outside your “circle of competence”?”

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Lessons from Karoo country life

Karoo
Karoo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In one of the small Karoo towns we drove around looking for a place to get something to eat en route to the coast. A friendly stranger at a service station gave us directions to a small cafe where he said that the food would be good. We were not disappointed.

In fact, the hamburgers and chips were wholesome and tasty. Better than anything we could have bought from the large fast-food chains which were in any event absent from this town. Continue reading “Lessons from Karoo country life”

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Three ways to tell if you are excelling in the right area

Passion is Everything | Kodai
Passion is Everything | Kodai (Photo credit: rAmmoRRison)

I was looking at an interview in a leadership magazine about Whitey Basson and saw his answer to a question about advice to leaders. He is the managing director and chief executive of Shoprite Holdings Ltd, the largest food retailer in Africa.

If you want to become a leader or entrepreneur, you must evaluate yourself “genetically” to establish if a certain field is one in which you can excel, he says. You need to evaluate yourself first and secondly it needs to be all about passion. Apart from this, hard work and much commitment, including the support of your family, co-starters and people with whom you work, is important.

Continue reading “Three ways to tell if you are excelling in the right area”

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What is your biggest disappointment in starting your new business?

Deutsch: Start des Stockholmmarathons 2009
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The answer to the question of “What has been your biggest disappointment since you started on your journey of establishing your business?” from a new start-up owner is surprising:

He said that it was the length of time that it has taken to establish his new business, the detours that he has taken on the way.

This answer comes from an entrepreneur who has established software to help small businesses determine their cash flow, including their outstanding debtors. Continue reading “What is your biggest disappointment in starting your new business?”

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What do businesses do with their unwanted people?

just a drop?
(Photo credit: johnb/Derbys/UK.)

A lot of people say you should not buy newspapers, turn off your radio and not watch TV. I even know some small business owners who avoid the media altogether just so that they are not affected by all the negativity.

Who can blame them?

We don’t know when or if the down economic cycle is going to end but at the moment it seems as though we are in the perfect economic storm. Interest rates are rising, the currency has gone South, fuel and other energy costs have skyrocketed, consumer debt is at unimaginable heights and demand in certain sectors has shrunk. Continue reading “What do businesses do with their unwanted people?”

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Why some small businesses battle to get their products in the hands (or mouths) of customers

English: This photo shows Wieden Bräu, a typic...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On a recent Sunday we went out to lunch in the country at a restaurant called Gilroy. The restaurant has a microbrewery attached to it or one could say that the microbrewery is attached to a restaurant. This restaurant/microbrewery has a great lesson for small businesses not only microbreweries on getting their products into the hands (and mouths) of the buying public. Continue reading “Why some small businesses battle to get their products in the hands (or mouths) of customers”

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What’s the special quality behind exceptional performance?

Rob Taylor (Photo credit: Chensey Bradshaw)
Rob Taylor (Photo credit: Chesney Bradshaw)

At 11 pm Rob Taylor, guitarist and singer, is getting ready to play his next set. He will entertain the crowd until 12:30 am. He’s playing a gig this night from 8:30 pm through to 12:30 am and it’s his second gig in two consecutive evenings.

How does a professional musician like Rob keep energised so much so that he is able to work at peak intensity for so many hours?

Just to give you an idea of what a superb and intense guitar player he is, on this evening, a Friday evening, he has already broken three guitar strings. Each time he’s stopped playing, repaired his guitar and come back on stage to play at the same spectacular level. None of this has got him down. Continue reading “What’s the special quality behind exceptional performance?”

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Girl invents flashlight powered only by the warmth of your hand

Teen Invents Flashlight That Could Change The World
Teen Invents Flashlight That Could Change The World

Start-up and small business owners usually make a breakthrough with products and services based on a small incremental improvement on an existing product. In fact, there is an old rule of thumb that says to make something commercially viable in the market it’s best that it not be more than about 15% different than what is already available on the market. Continue reading “Girl invents flashlight powered only by the warmth of your hand”